It's funny how often the very first of a new genre - the pioneers of literature, those that influence all that come after them - turn out to contain so much good material that, for all their influence, goes completely forgotten by later generations. The original time travel story does not concern itself with hyper-advanced space-faring future societies, nor time paradoxes or exploits (though they're briefly mentioned, demonstrating that Wells already knew where this was going even if he didn't look into it himself), and instead shoots straight past them and into the regressed final stages of humanity itself. It's not here to show us delightful action or fantastic and improbable future vistas, nor mess with our brains by means of time loops and such weirdness - instead it gives us a vision of where we would end up if we kept on going the way we are going right now. I suppose the closest modern-day equivalent would be Idiocracy.

The takeaway here is, nothing is perfect. Nothing can be perfect. And when we think we've achieved it, we've already begun to regress. The fall of an entire civilization typically follows.

Our own society is nowhere near to such perfection, but I do think we're much too concerned with what we have right now, rather than breaking new ground and looking to accomplish new great things, chase new horizons, solve the mysteries of the universe, and spreading out. Reading this book only reinforces one of my strongest beliefs: that we really should go out into space. Being stuck in this one cramped little ball is going to be our doom.

I enjoyed this classic, sci fi tale of time travel more than I thought I would. His descriptions of the time machine while traveling were riveting to me, I could imagine myself there. Interesting he used the class system of his time and Darwinism to explain the distant future. The beautiful writing also had me on the edge if my seat as he was descending the shaft to the underworld. Definitely worth a read.

H.G Wells is the Shakespeare of science fiction. After watching a series Time After Time on Amazon Prime, I decided to read The Time Machine and other works by the author.

Plot - It is the story of a Time Traveller, he designed a time machine. One day while working, he travels into the year 802,701. In the dark night, the first thing he saw is the white sphinx which is the key to his past and present. Soon he realized that humankind divided into two types.

One is Eloi, who lives above the earth and fears the murk. Others are Morlocks, they stroll in dark and exist subterrene. Time Traveller meets an Eloi named Weena. She helped him with this new world. Morlocks stole the time machine and the protagonist ignited a war against them.

H.G. Wells described the characters by their profession. The protagonist portrays as a capable and headstrong man. Weena is considered as a symbol of hope and humanity. The other roles don't have space to grow. The words are complicated to discern. In the beginning, I googled a lot of terms. I also felt that the story is a bit dull. Although the book has inspired many more works of fiction, and I like the way the author narrates the whole story. If you're into classics, this is a must-read.

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What’s in store for the future?



Well, maybe some spoilerish content if you haven’t read this book yet.

If you go by H. G. Wells novella, society (at least in merry future England circa 802,000 AD) will have been split between the Eloi and Morlocks in a bizarre twist on the haves and have nots.

What we predict for the distant future is predicated on what’s happening in the present. Wells future is filtered from the political science theories of his day. Capitalism-Communism, Workers-Idle rich, Industrial Age Woohah, but when it boils down to the story itself, Wells presents a fairly compelling glimpse for what’s down the road in a gazillion years or so.

What gave me goosebumps was when the Time Traveler left Morlockville and ended up in the waning days of Earth, as the planet hurtled into the abyss. I can’t imagine sitting there and getting a glimpse as everything comes to an end. It would be mind-blowing. This is far scarier than ducking a bunch of cannibalistic white monkeys. Just laser-tag those Magoo bitches.



Unless I was a gambling man, my choice, because I’ve always been a history buff, would be to hop on the souped-up time machine/lawn mower and journey into the past and wreak havoc there.

This is the second buddy read of a Wells classic by the Goodreads Legion of Non-Crunchy Pantsless Classics Readers Guild, the first being The Invisible Man awhile ago. It’s easy to see how Wells has had a profound influence on popular culture; his concepts are still being harvested and expanded on to this day – he’s the Stan Lee of the turn of the century minus the self-promotion and “foggy” memory of course.



In the future, they’ll build Meth labs on the Moon.

Not really sure what I expected going into this. In parts it is very dated - obviously, we are more knowledgeable about the universe than we were in Mr. Wells' time. But, the kicker is that this is still a really entertaining read.

If you're a tv/movie buff, then it is sort of like watching the original tv series of Lost In Space today, in a time when our movies run rampant with CGI and space is made in a Hollywood basement (thank you, Chilli Peppers). You can still watch Lost In Space and be well entertained, but you will not get the special effects as with The Time Machine. There are no Flux capacitors, no Matrix pulled over our real world and certainly no terminators. In fact, this is possibly one of the only books/movies where it is not really about meeting impending doom at the hands of previously never before discovered creatures or events - think Alien, The Event Horizon, and even Armageddon.

In fact, this book parallels Dracula by Bram Stoker in some ways. Going on today's world you expect Dracula to be a bloodthirsty vampire horror in the traditions of Anne Rice but those who have read it know that it is nothing like that. A book called the Time Machine conjures up images of landing in unknown times to be ripped apart by dinosaurs (if in past) or horrendous aliens (if in the future) and this simply doesn't happen.

The Time Machine is credited with being the thought process behind Dr. Who's tardis but there is really very little said about the machine itself. The predominant theme is one futuristic travel that the narrator undertakes and spends a week, still on Earth, but a very different one. There is a little good vs evil side play but read this book for what it is, a Sci-Fi classic, and enjoy it!

What can I say about this book? How often does a book set a standard so high that all stories that follow the subject have to pay tribute to it? From books to comics to movies...one of the foundational works of science fiction. Hummm...maybe if I go back in time I can steal the manuscript...then I will go down in history as the author of - The Time Machine!

Wells güzellemesi yapmamak için kendimi zor tutuyorum… Düşünün 1895 yılında ve zaman makinesini konu alan bir eser yazıyor, bunu yaparken yaklaşık 40-50 sene önce yayımlanmış bir teoriden de (C. Darwin) esinleniyor, hatta o da yetmiyor oğul Darwin’in (gelgit sürtünmesi) teorilerinden de destek alıyor… Diğer taraftan da tüm bunları yaparken çok ciddi bir toplumsal eleştiri okumak da mümkün; gelir adaletsizliği, işçi hakları, proleterya - soylu çatışması… ve tüm bunları Viktorya Dönemi gibi gayet saçma sapan bir zamanda gerçekleştiriyor (ki ateş ile oynamaktan farksız olduğunu kabul edersiniz).

Kitabın hemen başında, Celal Üster’in “bilimkurgu türünün doğuşu ve gelişimi” üzerine bir yazısı var, yaklaşık on sayfa, okunmasını tavsiye ederim.

Bir ekleme de İş Bankası Kültür’e, kitabın sonunda verilen okuma notları (dipnotlar) okumayı kolaylaştırmıyor, gerçekten… Şu eleştiriyi artık ciddiye almaları lazım.

Where has this book been all my life? Read to my 10-year-old son on vacation and we were both blown away with Wells' imagination and commentary on the evolution of man, especially the idea that the easier our lives become (via technology and advancement) the more effete we become as a species. My Wayward Pines trilogy certainly owes a debt to this mind-bending work. Certainly one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.

Probably an interesting novella in it’s day and thus become a Classic. Science Fiction is not really for me and this has confirmed it thankfully. I know there are themes of political, society, class and humanity scenario’s but compared to what’s out there it just did not grab my attention.

Back to the Future!



Considering H.G. Well's The Time Machine has the honor of being the book that popularized the idea that humans could use a machine to travel through time, I think he did a good job with the title, no?
But.
Since it was one of the forerunners of this genre, the whole schtick is that time travel happens. The rest of the plot? Eh. There were a few holes.
BUT WHO CARES BECAUSE TIME TRAVEL IS HAPPENING!



It was funny to me that Well's thought one probable outcome of curing disease, poverty, hunger, etc., would be that you'd end up with a bunch of pussies who couldn't fend for themselves.
And, of course, the cannibals who ate them.
{insert your own inappropriate joke here}
Heh.



Ok. But as I'm listening to this, I'm thinking that perhaps there might be some sort of middle ground, you know? I mean, I do think that struggle shapes us as individuals and as a species. But maybe striving to make life better for everyone won't end in one race of willowy dingbats who nap and giggle all day and one race of gross mutants who live underground. <--and yet still make shit for everyone?
Which is just fucking weird in and of itself. What's the idea? This surly race of Dahmer-like factory workers spend all day sewing clothes & crafting beautiful things for the Eloi, and then every now and again they emerge to cull the herd? Why? Why are they still working? Are they getting paid in some way by the people they're chewing on? Their work ethic can't just be functioning on autopilot, because NOBODY would continue to work just to work. Well's must not have understood the working class if he thought it was just somehow bred into our DNA to chug along like idiots for the sake of serving our betters. We're lazy and need motivation - hence the paycheck.
And food!
Where is the Eloi's food source coming from? Because the Morlocks sure as fuck aren't farming anything in those caverns other than nightmares, and the Eloi didn't seem capable of wiping their own asses much less doing a bit of light gardening. And, from what I could tell, the Morlocks weren't eating enough Eloi for all of them to survive on.
Where were those big bastards getting the rest of their protein? Beans?



You know what? It doesn't matter.
And it's also quite possible that all of these questions were addressed and answered and I just didn't pay close enough attention. <--this has been known to happen a lot, especially if the book isn't action-packed and/or doesn't have pictures.
The point is that this professor guy got into his little machine, whooshed forward a bunch of centuries, crash-landed in the future, lost his ride, met an Eloi named Weena & had a rather creepy "friendship" with her, almost got himself eaten by the anti-vegan Morlocks, found his machine (I forgot how), hopped back in & cranked it up, went back to jolly old England, and arrived in time to have tea with a bunch of his sorta-friends.



Oh! Also, he finds out that our sun has a limited warranty.
I knew we should have gone ahead and bought the extra protection from the manufacturer.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!



In all honesty, this was a decent yarn that explored the idea that humans need something to strive towards. And that unless you treat your lower classes well, the end result of utopia will most definitely be the sweaty, unwashed masses in picnic mode - roasting your flimsy, yet delicious, ass over a fire.



Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Edition: Unabridged
Bernard Mayes - Narrator

DNF. I tried to like it. I am not a SciFi fan, but loved 1984 when my book club chose it earlier this year. This past month they chose this one and I was hopeful it would be equally as good. Unfortunately I couldn't finish it.

Group read with the Non-Crunchy Pantsless Classics people!

Technically this is the June buddy read... whoops.

Not sure why I've stayed away from HG Wells as long as I have; I've heard of his stories many times and know they belong to the classic canon -- The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr Moreau -- but this is the first I've read and I have to say I enjoyed it.

It particularly had a hand in urging me toward Jekyll & Hyde for our October read (and I'll likely read it either way come Halloween time) thanks to the way the story, or at least part of it, is told by a character who is seeing things from outside the main character's point of view. That is, our narrator is retelling the story to the reader as it is being told to him by the time-traveler. John Utterson does this in a similar fashion in the Jekyll & Hyde story, if memory serves me.

Anyway, the story itself was beautifully told and very suspenseful. Scott Brick did an excellent job narrating, as always, and I'm looking forward to stumbling across Wells again in the future.